West RegionaL.

Drexel's Axle, Rose, Wilts

March 17, 1996|By Skip Myslenski.

ALBUQUERQUE — John Wallace, the Syracuse star, walked up to Otis Hill, his team's center, just minutes before the start of the Orangemen's game Saturday with Drexel, and here Wallace told Hill, "Don't worry about the offensive end. Your main job is to stop Malik Rose."

They had both watched Rose, Drexel's fine center, outplay Memphis' Lorenzen Wright in the Dragons' win Thursday, so their concern was legitimate. But Saturday night Rose wilted under both Hill's pressure and a suffocating Syracuse zone, and that is one reason the fourth-seeded Orange escaped with a 69-58 victory.

The win moved them into a West Regional semifinal against Georgia, yet 12th-seeded Drexel again proved a surprisingly tough opponent. Even without Rose, who was limited to 11 points, the Dragons were tied with Syracuse at the half, and still within four with 6 minutes 3 seconds remaining.

They had been successfully ignorning Orange guard Lazarus Sims, leaving him to double down on Wallace (18 points), and to this point that plan had not hurt them. But Sims (12 points) finally made them pay, hitting one three at 5:39, another just 52 seconds later.

That put Syracuse up 10, and with that, the Orange had effectively slayed the Dragon.